flittingbutterfly

Monday, October 23, 2006

Rhinebeck Report

Every year, it's the same schpeel. Paul, my husband and usually sweet man, wants to go, so I am thrilled with that and drive up instead of taking the bus my spinning group rents. The ride there is absolute h*ll. We bicker, we argue, we become hungry, old grizzly bears (not the cuddly kind). We get there at noon, not nine. Ten minutes after we get out of the car, life couldn't be rosier. I'm not kidding. This has happened at least four times.

People

The first person I recognized there was Stephanie. I felt like a stalker. As she stood on line to get, I think, a coffee, I watched her. My thoughts were running in all different directions, composing what was to come out of my mouth. I wanted to congratulate her on her wedding and on the wedding shawl, which she was wearing. It is gorgeous! I wanted to talk about her bookS. I wanted to sound really cool, because even though I’m a lurker, I do have a blog. And if I get myself together, and post regularly, maybe she’d get to know me by my writing. I wanted to take a picture with her. Fat chance. Remember, this was within the first 10 minutes of having arrived at the fair. Life had definite streaks of rose, but for all I knew, that could’ve been faint, dried blood stains from the ride. When I focused attention to where she had been standing for, oh, 5 minutes, she wasn’t there. Whaaa? She can’t go away. I haven’t said hello yet. I spotted her at the end of the booth, probably trying to escape, so she could go shopping. Meanwhile, my husband is futzing with the camera, deleting old pictures. The disk was full. It was full the whole ride up there. Now was when he started deleting pictures. In all fairness to him, I didn’t expect to see someone I recognized right away. So, I walk up to Stephanie, introduce myself, say some inane thing about her not being able to have a moment’s peace in the festival because of people like me, and then, all I could say was that I loved her. Even though you don’t know me, I really love you, Stephanie. Oh. My. Goodness. Shoot. Me. Now. Please. I turned around and walked away to my camera-futzing husband. He said I should’ve waited until he was done, so he could take a picture of us. I said never mind.

The other person I wanted to say hello to was Marilyn. I spotted her with her Joy by the concession stands, around 3 pm. I recognized Lars and Ted, and I think Carol, but didn’t fess up to them. I did say hello to Mar. It is funny how people you read regularly develop a voice in your head (oh, stop it). Mar sounds differently from Mar-voice-in-my-head. So does Stephanie, by the way. They both sound better in person. Maybe I’m no good at voices. Anyway, it was great meeting the Knitting Curmudgeon. She was so nice. We talked about spinning and she told me to comment more. Will do.

I saw Claudia walking by a couple of times. I didn’t say anything to her because 1) she has no idea of who I am (I lurk and haven’t commented at all), and 2) because it was right after meeting Stephanie. I wasn’t sure yet of how my thoughts were going to make my mouth behave.

Met numerous people from my spinning guild. Sadly, I had set up a meeting with a friend, Melissa, whom I did not see at all. The meeting was at 11:30. I arrived at about noon. It was mobbed, forget about finding her. I also didn't see Ann. Were you there?

Things I bought (pictures of loot as I unload the car, no joke)

There was one thing I wanted to get this year. Skaska had gorgeous laceweight or gossamer, hand dyed skeins of different fiber content. Because I only saw them at the end of the fair last year, I had already blown the budget (oh, stop it), and didn’t buy any. This year, for sure, I was gonna git me some of those purty hand dyed. Well, this was the only thing I didn’t get. I bought some laceweight Icelandic, some Tintagel Farms beauties for four smallish projects, some blue faced Leicester fiber from Abi’s Web, and a few other things… I bought an antique wheel. As we walked around, my husband pointed out a small, dark, old wheel. It is a gossip wheel, with the double flyers, and one pedal. Very pretty.

For all the years I’ve been spinning, about 8 or 9, my wheel has been an Ashford Scholar. I purchased it from a dealer who sold her business years ago, and had this wheel in her attic for years after. It is a castle style wheel, small and very simple. It works fine though, and it’s easy to transport.

On the way out, while looking for Skaska’s booth -- because why would I look at the map thingie they provide at the entrance, or the map and vendors list I printed last week for myself, and both groups of paper were in my back pocket –- Paul pointed out a beautiful wheel on the floor of a booth. It turned out to be a Country Craftsman. The last one the vendor had. We worked out a deal, and it is in my car, baybee! I can’t believe it. Two wheels, totally unplanned for, in my car! I was and am so happy. This is not usual.

Food

Surprisingly, the cheeseburger I had was delicious. The patty didn’t look like the frozen kind you get at most festivals. Don’t know if it is usually like that at Rhinebeck. It was my first burger there. One year there was a booth selling salmon, bacon and lettuce sandwiches. It was fabulous. Haven’t found them again, though.